3 Reasons Why You Need to Restart Your PC Now (And Why a Shutdown Won’t Do The Trick)

by | Jan 4, 2022 | IT Tips & Tricks

restarting a device

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”. Most people would roll their eyes when they hear this from their IT guy. But the fact is that restarting a device fixes a lot of the issues IT professionals deal with on a daily basis, whether it’s a computer, mobile phone or any other device. 

1. Restarting a device will improve performance and might fix some issues  

Computer running slow? Internet not connecting? Restart. Your computer contains decades worth of technology advancements, but sometimes it just needs a little reset to perform at its best. Whilst it’s not guaranteed that the issue will be fixed by a simple restart it’s a good place to start.

2. Restarting a device gives you a clean slate.

All programs running on your device leave behind a footprint. Modern operating systems are very adept at spotting and removing stuck processes and also work very hard to keep things tidy, but sometimes a computer can reach a state where the best thing to do is start again from scratch. Any code that’s stuck in a misbehaving state will be swept away. When you restart, the computer or device will bring the system up from scratch, restarting all the software from square one so it will work just as well as it was working before.

3. Restarting a device will trigger updates

One of the first thing our ITFR experts look at when it comes to PC issues is pending updates. Updates and patches are paramount to your PC performing well,  whether it’s security, usability, or otherwise. Most of the time these updates download automatically but require a reboot to install.

Restart vs Shutdown

It is often assumed that restarting and shutting down your PC is essentially the same thing. It used to be the case with older versions of Windows. However, with the introduction of Windows 8 Microsoft has released a feature called Fast Startup. When you shut down your PC it goes into a sleep state and shuts down all programs and files you have open, but doesn’t shut off the Windows kernel, the core of the operating system, which enables the software and the hardware to work together.

Restart, on the other hand, shuts down all of the processes, including the kernel, which means you get a totally clean start when the computer boots up again.

So go on and click “restart” now to give your PC the fresh start it needs. And if after restarting a device you are still having problems contact ITFR’s team of experts and we will be able to assist you in no time. Here are the 5 ways you can contact our techs if you are having issue with your devices. 

 

More Related Posts

How to Organise Cloud Storage: 6 Helpful Tips

How to Organise Cloud Storage: 6 Helpful Tips

Cloud storage revolutionized the way we handle documents. However, disorganized cloud storage systems lead to problems. This includes having a hard time finding files. It’s estimated that 50% of office workers spend more time looking for files than they do actually working. Here are some tip on how to organise cloud storage.

read more

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This